The most under-rated books you have read - recommendations please

[TondelayoSchwarzkopf]

OK - they are doing overrated books over in AIBU - let's do under-rated because I'm bored of being negative.

These are my favourites that need dusting off and distributing to everyone instead of the usual McEwan / Franzen / Orange / Booker / TV adaptations snooze-fests.

Main Street - Sinclair Lewis.
Beautiful book about a young woman's growing disillusion with suburban life in the midwest.

Angel - Elizabeth Taylor
I know she is raved about by those who know but it's time for her to be famous and exalted. Amazing book about an Edwardian romantic novelist who is totally deluded.

Damon Runyan short stories - hilarious vivid and brilliant - set in the New York of the 1920s and full of gangsters and molls.

The Sheltering Sky - Paul Bowles
Frankly weird but engrossing tale of travellers crossing the Sahara.

Please dig out all of the above and let me know your secret favourites.

I liked Knowledge of Angels but I didn't agree with its conclusion.

Nigel Balchin's books are very good - The Small Back Room, Darkness Falls From the Air, A Way Through the Wood.

He also invented the Aero and the KitKat.

William Faulkner is hard work but brilliant.

Frenchman's Creek by Daphne du Maurier is wonderful. One of my favourite books. Actually think Rebecca is over-rated!

I haven't Zero - must dig them out but I did find it so profoundly .

DandyDan (is that a Bugsy Malone reference?) also hard work but brilliant in a Faulkner esque setting is Wise Blood by Flannery O'Connor.

Cowboys Are My Weakness - great collection of short stories but can't remember the author.

Have thought of a book that hasn't been nominated for any awards that is still good' Hospital by Toby Litt. A surreal yarn about a hospital where noone can die and the dead come back to life. David lynch-ian in its quirkyness. Very fun.

Thanks for this thread. Was jsut thinking this morning that I haven't read anything decent for ages and was stuck for ideas! I haven't really got anything to add though - all my favourites are classics that are probably rated just how they should be!

No-one seems to read Nights at the Circus any more, but it is the best book everrrrr.

Is the Pumpkin Eaters good? I know one of her daughters and think it might be weird to read in that context.

I noticed that Joseph Roth's novels aren't easily found in English bookshops, and I believe he is one of the best writers on the xx century.

of, not on

Lolita is prob a controversial choice on Mumsnet but Nabakov's Laughter in the Dark is just as awesome.

On the back of this I've just ordered another 4 books off Amazon. Thank you.
I might add, from another thread, there are currently 12 other books sitting on the bedside table, awaiting my attention!

I agree, Lolita is a great book. Nobokov is a superb writer, I particularly loved The real life of Sebastian Knight

It is a good book. But ROFL at "Nob"okov :o

Maybe I need a name change , after all these years

Bet you got a shock seeing that flash up in active convos Oblomov :o

We weren't talking about you, honest

I really recommend 'What Makes Sammy Run' by Budd Shulberg. Tells you everything you need to know about America.

I also love Oblomov -- of course in Russian. I also love Dead Souls but that's hardly underrated.

A second vote for Paul Bowes 'The Sheltering Sky'

The Golovyov Family by Saltikov-Schchedrin - makes anything in Relationships seem tame

Durrell's Alexandria Quartet?

Nobokov Nobokov Nobokov. Light of my life. Fire of my loins. He was Nob in slacks, Nobby at school but to me he was always Nobokov.

Must. Get. Out. More.

... oh dear

Lolita is masterful imho.

Lovely, Tondelayo :)

Lolita isn't underrated though.

Yeah, sorry Miss. ^shuffles around looking at shoes^

Um...
Um...

Pedro Paramo by Juan Rulfo

I think children's writers are often under-rated. I always go on about her, but I love Theresa Tomlinson's historical novels. The Forestwife is still one of my favourite books, all about life in the 13th(?) century, it's excellent.

Another thread has reminded me how much I adored Any Human Heart by William Boyd. In terms of classics that no one seems to read: The Crowded Street by Winifred Holtby is superb and Cousin Phillis by Elizabeth Gaskell makes me shiver with pleasure, it is sheer perfection.

I agree about Main Street - for a book written in 1920 it was really modern, and after reading it I couldn't beleive I hadn't heard of it before.

I think George R R Martin is under-rated, his Game of Thrones series is gaining traction but still not really that heard of given how fabulous they are - especially for people like me who don't usually like fanstasy. He also wrote a great vampire book called Fevre Dream which is years old now and pre-dates (and is better than IMHO) any of the pop Vampire stuff around now

TondelayoSchwarzkopf

If you do want underrated Nabokov, try Volshebnik (translated as The Enchanter, you can get in it penguin I think) which is the precursor to Lolita and deals with some of the same themes of old world/new world and ephebophilia.